


Ruins

by eyemeohmy



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Angst, Fantasizing, Headcanon, Other, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-13
Updated: 2015-07-13
Packaged: 2018-04-09 01:41:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4328880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eyemeohmy/pseuds/eyemeohmy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And that's when Brainstorm realized he wasn't alone in his cell.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ruins

**Author's Note:**

> I've been wanting to write this for a while. Finally got around to it. Not sure what I feel about it, but eh, here it is. There is a very mild gory scene. Also, alongside the rest of the headcanon herein, this fic assumes Brainstorm did confess to Quark.
> 
> Some things may seem a bit OOC, so I apologize in advance if they come off that way.
> 
> Also, DAMN SO TEMPTING TO REFERENCE "POMPEII" BY BASTILLE IN HERE SOMEWHERE BUT I MUST RESIST.

At first, Brainstorm thought it was the cell doors humming. The vibrating bars of energy casting an eerie red glow in his prison unit. However, the rhythm begin to change, shift--sing-song.

And that's when Brainstorm realized he wasn't alone in his cell.

Brainstorm debated opening his optics, greeting his cellmate. The humming was coming from inside. He decided it took too much effort to care--to do much of anything, actually, but sit there and try not to think. A task he once considered impossible, but the numbing sensation was all too welcoming.

"You can't always get what you want. You can't always get what you want."

Brainstorm's optics slowly opened. There was no denying that voice--that voice singing a song so familiar, and yet he had a hard time placing it. Definitely not Cybertronian. He was almost afraid to look up, his wide optics staring at his hands shaking in his lap.

"But if you try sometimes..."

The maskplate slipped away as Brainstorm willed himself to look. It took every ounce of strength in his tired, wary body. He stared at Quark, sitting on the ledge of a circular window out-looking space. A window that, much like Quark, was not originally there. A window that looked like the one in Quark's lab, in fact; the one Quark liked to sit at to rest or hold a casual conversation.

"That's an... Earth song, right?" Brainstorm asked, finally.

Quark turned away from the stars. "You would know best," he replied.

"I never would have pegged you as a fan of Earth music, to be honest."

Quark chuckled. He nodded at the window. "Do you remember when the council assigned a small team of scientists--including the two of us--to investigate strange cosmic and star activity nearby Dross? To our surprise, just moments after we arrived, we witnessed the start of a quark-nova." His optics softened behind his glasses. "It was beautiful. Absolutely exhilarating. We witnessed the death and rebirth of a star; a rare metamorphosis so few have captured up close and personal."

Brainstorm's jaw clenched. "You thought if we got any closer we'd be sucked in," he said.

"We lost a chunk of the hull."

"Yeah, okay, but those colors were just so damn pretty. Could you _really_ blame me?"

"Do you remember what you called it?"

Brainstorm felt his spark flutter, and an aching, gnawing sensation in the pit of his tanks.

"Quark's quark," Quark answered for him, rolling his optics, "for all your brilliance, you always had such ridiculous and silly names for things."

"Hey, now," Brainstorm snorted, "anyone else would have been flattered to be named after a star."

"Except 'Quark's quark' wasn't what we put down on the official file."

Brainstorm huffed. "Better than 'Dross quark.' My names are fun, at least. That was just... bland." He swished a wrist. "No finesse or sense of humor!"

"Yours was hardly original."

"It was romantic!" Brainstorm growled, only to immediately go silent, optics widening.

Quark said nothing, his own expression remaining neutral.

Brainstorm looked away. "How are you..." It was the question he should have asked the moment he opened his eyes and saw two things that didn't belong in this reality.

"I think you know," Quark replied, "but to confirm: yes, this is a fantasy. No, none of this is real. Yes, I'm still dead. Yes, I'm a figment of your imagination--I am an amalgamation of all your memories of Quark manifested. I know things Quark doesn't know, but you do, because I am still technically you."

Brainstorm glanced up, quickly diverting his gaze again.

Quark frowned. "I can only tell you what you want to know. And according to you... Yes, it was very painful," he said. "It hurt." He sat upright. "Something... like this."

Brainstorm looked up, spark stopping dead in his chest. The top of Quark's head cracked, then started to split, plating and armor flattening and breaking as if he were being crushed by some invisible force. Quark remained calm, however, even with half his head gone and laying in chunks at his feet, energon and cranial fluids draining down his squashed face, one flattened edge of his brain module exposed.

"Stop!" Brainstorm shouted, but found he hadn't even opened his mouth. He forced himself to look back at Quark, and much to his relief, he was whole again. No sign of damage, not even a little scratch. Brainstorm winced, burying his face in a hand; his shoulders stiffened as he sat forward.

"You didn't want me to stop," Quark said suddenly, "you wanted to see. To punish yourself." He tilted his helm. "Despite all that quirky madness of yours, you've still got some rationality. Quiet as it may be, it knows it wasn't your fault."

Brainstorm knew. He knew it wasn't, deep down inside, but the guilt was... overwhelming. Suffocating. It wasn't his fault Quark died. But, in a way, it felt like it was. He had the chance to save him, to reverse the irreversible, to change the impossible. To alter fate. To save Quark from his cruel, painful demise.

"I told you before," Quark lectured, "you're smart, you're clever, you're strong, but you're not a god, Brainstorm."

Brainstorm rubbed his face. "It's not a bad aspiration...?" he tittered.

"You might have set the bar a little too high for that," Quark huffed, folding his arms. "And if you're looking for me to torture you, to haunt you--you're out of luck. I'm a product of your mind, not necessarily your emotions. Your memories of Quark include me behaving much like he would. And I'm not going to blame you for not rescuing me from Grindcore. You and I--the real Quark--know better than that."

Brainstorm shook his head.

"However, I will say what you did was incredibly stupid and reckless," Quark snarled. "I mean, you've done a lot of crazy things in your long life, but this? This took the entire oil cake. No, it took at least a factory of oil cakes."

Brainstorm looked up, and... smiled. Just a little. "But I invented time travel," he insisted. "Can't I even get like, maybe some candy for that?"

"Your intentions were ambiguous at best. You're not getting candy for being ambiguous."

"Ambiguous, but well-intended. I mean, that's science, Quark. If we can create a cure-all medicine to end all diseases, testing it on mechanimals may seem dubious to some, but the ends justify the means."

Quark pointed at him. "Except you used the _entire delicate structure and fabric of time and space_ as your guinea pig."

"I didn't have a turbo-mouse on me. Or a pocket to another dimension to run tests on."

"Shoot first, ask questions later," Quark grunted and shook his head.

Brainstorm's smile faded. "Yeah. Might've worked if I was a better shot," he murmured.

"You can feel sorry for yourself all you want, but you know you still pulled off something miraculous and, well, what was once considered impossible. So credit where credit is due. Even if you made a mess of things."

Brainstorm shrugged. "Well, guess I'm gonna have to clean 'em up."

"Maybe if things had been different."

Brainstorm blinked, confused. "Wot?"

Quark looked out the window. "Maybe I would have said 'yes,'" he continued. "But... There was so much going on. I was under a lot of stress, a lot of pressure. We both were. Had things been different... Maybe."

Brainstorm had a feeling he knew what Quark was talking about, but... why so suddenly?

"It's your train of thought," Quark scowled, "so don't blame me."

"So I believe if things were different you would have..." Brainstorm swallowed dryly. He couldn't finish. "Then that's just how I feel. Not... not how _he_ felt."

"You knew me--him--probably more than you expected. You're a smart mech, Brainstorm; you can read people, when you want to. Once you stop focusing on yourself." Quark half-smiled. "Your assumption was correct. Had things been different, my answer most likely would have been different."

Brainstorm exvented, a shudder running down his backstrut.

"I was flattered, too, even if I didn't show it," Quark said. He scratched at his cheek, a little embarrassed. "I have to admit, you were... the first person to ever... Well... Even though I turned you down, I was still..."

Brainstorm grinned. "Who wouldn't be? Someone like me and all."

Quark scowled.

Brainstorm laughed. "Every time," he said, and laughed a little harder, "it's so cute whenever you scowl. Every time, it makes me happy." He laughed and laughed and leaned his head back against the wall, hands covering his optics.

"We're not ungrateful, Brainstorm."

"Agreed."

Brainstorm bolted up, shocked to see Ambulon standing in front of him.

"I may not have agreed with your methods," Ambulon grumbled, folding his arms, "but... I'm not entirely ungrateful, like Quark said."

"You did your best!" Pipes added. "Your spark was in the right place, at least!"

"Gotta give you credit," Trailcutter smirked, "you've got some real heavy duty brass bearings on ya."

"Maybe stupid," Ore chuckled.

"But still brave," Shock finished.

"Don't feel too bad, s'what we're saying," Deftwing explained.

"So... thank you."

Brainstorm choked, glancing down at Rewind.

"Things'll get better," Rewind added, shrugging. "Or maybe we can aspire for better times, at least?"

Polaris stood forward, Hyperion beside him. "Three cheers for Brainstorm!" he exclaimed, hands in the air.

"Three cheers for Brainstorm!" the group agreed.

"Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip--hooray!"

Brainstorm watched, awed, shocked, confused. All of his former teammates--gone, but not forgotten--ghosts managing to pack comfortably in what was once a small cell... Singing, cheering, laughing, applauding him.

"For he's a jolly good fellow! For he's a jolly good fellow!"

Brainstorm tasted the tears before he could feel them running down his face. He dropped forward, and even as they continued cheering for him, he cried into his hands, his entire frame quivering.

"You can take it one of two ways. But ultimately, it's your choice."

Brainstorm forced himself to sit up, look at Quark sitting beside him.

Quark placed a hand on his back. "What happens next," he said, "is ultimately your choice."

" _What_ happens next?" Brainstorm sniffed, wiping his cheeks dry.

Quark smiled, gently urging Brainstorm to lie back with a hand to his chest. "Lie down," he said, softly, and yet his voice was the only one he could hear over all the ruckus.

Brainstorm obeyed, never once breaking eye contact with Quark above him.

"Close your optics. Power them down."

Brainstorm swallowed. "Just one moment, please?"

Quark nodded.

One moment to just... remember that smile he was never going to see again. Real or not, it was indeed a perfect duplicate. Brainstorm's optics fell lidded before finally closing completely.

"Now wake up."

Brainstorm woke with a small sigh. He quickly sat up, remembering what--

The cell was empty. No window. No other soul in sight. The energon bars hummed softly, glowing a sickly red.

Brainstorm stared at the wall. A wall that, only moments ago, had a window. A window that looked just like the window in Quark's lab. A window with a ledge Quark liked to perch on, whether to relax or hold casual conversation. A window where Brainstorm first told Quark he loved him, and after awkward silence, was politely turned down.

A window from a time long ago that, had things been different, so would have been Quark's answer.

**Author's Note:**

> The song Quark is singing in the beginning is [You Can't Always Get What You Want by the Rolling Stones](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S94ohyErSw).


End file.
